Pediatric Obesity Specialist: Very Obese Children Should be Taken From Parents

Making the case that severely obese children should be taken into government custody in order to protect the children’s health, Dr. David Ludwig, an obesity specialist from Children’s Hospital in Boston said officials sometimes need to intervene, the Associated Press [1] reported.

In an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Ludwig’s co-author, Harvard School of Public Health researcher Lindsey Murtagh told AP, “Despite the discomfort posed by state intervention, it may sometimes be necessary to protect a child.”

The AP said approximately 2 million American children fall into the “extremely obese” category. (July 2011)